Joel Santo DomingoVelocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (Nvidia GeForce GTX 480)Velocity Micro brings the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480), its latest uber gaming system, to the market. Sure, it's almost $6,000, but that's the price you must pay to get a system that will play high-end 3D games at the highest quality levels.

Velocity Micro brings the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480), its latest uber gaming system, to the market. Sure, it's almost $6,000, but that's the price you must pay to get a system that will play high-end 3D games at the highest quality levels.

Velocity Micro is on the short list of system builders who showcase the latest technology in its desktop towers. In the case of the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) ($5,999 direct), that technology would be Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 480 cards (three of them). They have the chops to get you steady frame rates on even the most difficult 3D gaming tests at very high settings. The system also features an overclocked 6-core CPU and lots of I/O ports. Now, all this does cost a pretty penny, but it's worth the money if you crave (and can afford) the highest level of performance on the gaming grid.

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Design
The Raptor Signature Edition comes, fittingly enough, in a larger version of Velocity Micro's Signature case. The system box is made for larger graphics cards like the ATI Radeon HD 5970 and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 480 card. This isn't a system that will fade into the background of any room, but rather is meant to capture your attention immediately. The windowed case door shows off the three massive graphics cards and the cooler for the overclocked Intel Core i7-980X processor inside. The aesthetic of the Micro Raptor is somewhere in between the gaudy flashiness of the Alienware Area 51 ($3,969 direct, ) and the staid minimalism of the Maingear Shift ($6,399 direct, ). But the overall design scheme of VM's cases are getting a little too "familiar," blending together too much.

The rollers on the bottom of the case make it easy to move the system out from under a desk on a carpeted floor, but they roll a little too easily on our smooth, flat workbench. A drop of 3 feet to a hard floor wouldn't be a ideal situation, so I suggest omitting the rollers if you're planning on showing this machine off on a table or desk.

Features
The system comes with the requisite bunch of connectors: ten USB 2.0 ports, a pair of FireWire ports, as well as digital and analog audio in/out ports. The three GeForce graphics cards have six DVI ports, along with three mini-HDMI jacks (you'll need an adapter for connections to a HDTV). Last but not least, the system has an eSATA port, which is almost essential on high-end desktops. The inside of the chassis has neatly routed cabling, supplying the internal components with power and data connections. The system has space for three more 3.5-inch hard drives and one more optical drive. The three free system memory DIMM slots are the last bit of internal expansion room in the case; otherwise the three GeForce cards and their internal cooling fans cover all the internal PCI/PCIe slots.

The Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) comes with a larger 128GB solid state drive (SSD), which is twice the space that was in the Raptor Z90 ($5,499 Direct, ) we looked at earlier this year. Also, the data drive has doubled in size from 1TB to 2TB. On the whole, that's a good thing, since you'll have to uninstall programs less often. The system comes with a Blu-ray reader (BD-ROM)/Dual layer DVD burner, along with another DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. This feature will assist you if you're copying DVDs or playing games that require two optical drives for "best performance," but these days the second drive is unnecessary for most users.

The one thing that Velocity Micro systems don't have is bloatware (all those extra trial programs like Office Trial that come on retail PCs). This means you don't have to worry about deleting all the extra programs, but if you want the trial software pre-loaded, they give you the option.

Velocity Micro packed in the sleekly designed Razer Lycosa USB keyboard and Razer Deathadder mouse (both are included in the configuration price). The Lycosa keyboard even switches its backlit keys to "just the ones you need" when it detects a game loading on the system, which makes for a thoughtful feature.

Performance
The Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) is a gaming system, so performance is the first thing that comes to mind. It finished the Windows Media Encoder test in 33 seconds, and the PhotoShop CS4 test in 46 seconds (one of the fastest ever). Anything below one minute is excellent for either test.

The raison d'être for this system is the game grid, and it doesn't disappoint. Both Crysis and World in Conflict are both above 100 frames per second (fps), which is a performance equivalent of a knife through butter. At the Very High setting in 1,920 by 1,200 resolution, the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) manages an even 60fps on Crysis and 112 fps on World in Conflict. This PC is one of only a handful of gaming systems to perform well on these tests. The Maingear Shift manages a bit better performance at the game tests, but this extra performance on most tests is within the realm of diminishing returns (can you really tell the difference between 112 fps and 125 fps in World in Conflict?).

The GeForce GTX 480 cards in the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) are faster on some 3D tests than the Radeon cards in the Raptor Z90 when you compare the systems' 3DMark Vantage test scores. The Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) gains a mind-blowing 92,138 points at Entry level settings and 24,494 points at Extreme settings. This blows away the scores of the Maingear Shift (which had two ATI Radeon HD 5970 cards) and the "older" Raptor Z90 systems. To put this in context: Since the ATI Radeon 5970 cards each have two GPUs and each Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 card has one, this means that three Nvidia GPUs outpace four ATI GPUs at the 3DMark Vantage test.

Compared with the Raptor Z90, the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) shows that it's worth the extra $600 since it also has larger hard drives and newer graphics cards. Those newer graphics cards show better performance, on benchmark tests like 3DMark look for a future driver that may improve Crysis and World in Conflict performance (not that it needs any extra performance at WiC). The Maingear Shift holds on to the high-end gaming Editors' Choice, since that system "only" costs $400 more and still is the king of the 3D gaming benchmark tests. The Shift's innovative chassis design is also fresher and sturdier than that of the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480). Ultimately the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition is a good choice in a tight pack of $5,000+ gaming rigs. Get one and you will be a force to be reckoned with on the game grid.

Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (Nvidia GeForce GTX 480)

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Bottom Line: Velocity Micro brings the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480), its latest uber gaming system, to the market. Sure, it's almost $6,000, but that's the price you must pay to get a system that will play high-end 3D games at the highest quality levels.

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About the Author

Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel e... See Full Bio

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